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Burning Rubber

When critic, curator, and art world heavyweight Francesco Bonami dubs an artist ‘one of the most influential [...] of this decade, and probably the next one too...’, you are probably well-advised to keep a beady eye on said artist. Well, we certainly have, and are pleased to announce that the gent in question, Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, is finally making his first foray into China with an extensive exhibit at the privately funded Faurschou Foundation space in Beijing’s happening art district.

Entitled ‘Chicotes’, which literally translates as ‘whip’ in Spanish but is also a colloquial phrase used to describe blown out tyres, the exhibition consists of just that: the remnants of burst tyres that Orozco has painstakingly collected along the freeways of Mexico over the years. It may seem a bizarre and seemingly pointless concept on first consideration, but a visit to the space, where a multi-sensory experience including the unexpectedly warm smell of rubber, followed by the vision of a vast tapestry of disintegrating burnt black rubber awaits, will have you beginning to understand Orozco’s all-encompassing experience. The rubber, accentuated with molten metal in places, has taken on an almost organic look of driftwood and seems to capture a frozen moment of tension in each piece. So you better lay some rubber to get there, or expect to queue!